John Adams

The coronavirus stimulus package has resurrected calls for the U.S. government to offer a central bank digital currency, public mobile wallets and postal banking—controversial ideas that are hard to pull off, but exist outside the U.S. and could dent interchange fees and private stablecoin projects like Facebook’s Libra.

The coronavirus is hitting small businesses hard, slamming one of Square’s core markets just as the payments company got a long-awaited industrial banking license.

Even for companies that support remote work, having an entire staff working from home on short notice opens new complications for B2B payments and accounts receivable.

The payments industry bridges many markets — including technology and finance — that haven't always demonstrated diversity at their highest ranks. Things are changing, and this year's Most Influential Women in Payments honorees demonstrate the importance of women to all aspects of the payments industry and all corners of the globe.

It’s a rare occurrence for a business to receive a huge business spike while also shutting parts of the operation, but that’s where the coronavirus has landed Farmstead.

Governments are directly advancing real-time digital payments — a welcome move for Ripple, which is applying its relationship with MoneyGram and a growing base of eager partners to expand its network.

The nationwide lockdown in Italy has necessitated changes for Pellegrino personally, and for his business. The two worlds often intersect.

The global efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak are leading to drastic actions that test the limits of what consumers will accept when governments and other entities use their payment data.

Something as simple as the sale of cheese can show how fear instantly affects the economy, disrupting trade and the transaction fees that processors rely on.

Investors and deep-pocketed payments firms have funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into the payments industry, demanding results in areas as wide ranging as digital processing, consumer experience, risk management and compliance.

Michael Miebach was already a major cog in Mastercard’s digital transformation and dealmaking, a path that will take him to the company’s top job when current president and CEO Ajay Banga transitions to executive chairman at the end of the year.

Intuit’s reportedly nearing a $7 billion deal to acquire Credit Karma, giving it an offering that could empower fintechs to more closely encroach on bank territory.

It’s an odd, and unwelcome, test of new retail technology that allows consumers to shop with minimal interaction with others.

The U.K.’s departure from the European Union is still causing lots of headaches for financial technology companies, but there’s now enough clarity to work with. And that often means operating from a new address.

Square is adding to its menu of services just as long-established competitors embed expanding payments technology into their own product mix.

Whether it’s an online sale or a corporate supply chain, the need to silently transfer and convert currencies is inspiring a mix of rapid product development and investment.

Point of sale credit can be an alluring option for consumers who are normally averse to taking on debt. The allure is also enough to draw support from one of Australia’s largest banks and the digital merchant acquiring giant Stripe.

Curve has decided to take advantage of the work done by the major mobile wallet brands by adding support for Apple Pay and the other major wallet apps. This addition is designed to make Curve, and the Pays, a workaround for banks that don’t support all three major mobile wallets.

Barclays, in an effort to counter digital fintechs in omnichannel merchant acquiring, is working with BigCommerce to offer multichannel transactions enhanced fraud detection to its nearly 60,000 merchants online and improve fraud detection.

As the incumbents gets bigger, the innovation that created the urgency continues unabated.